Exhibition on homelands, displacements on in Delhi

New Delhi : Drawings and oil paintings depicting human and animal figures in familiar and alien environs, dealing with concepts of homelands and displacements, are exhibited at the Triveni Kala Sangam here starting Tuesday.

Titled "This Side of the Forest", the exhibition houses works by artist Vasudevan Akkitham.

"Though I have always maintained sketchbooks and drawn whatever I saw and felt, it had never even once crossed my mind that they could be displayed," Akkitham said in his note on the exhibition, adding that many of them come from his "assorted sketchbooks of the last fifteen years or so".

He was egged on to exhibit his work by his friend and prominent artist Rekha Rodwittiya, who curated the first show of his sketches in 2014.

"(It) frames the preoccupations of his concept of home being central to his work. He refers to this territory as being a migrant's dream, yet imaginary and elusive, and in no way corresponding to the actual place he comes from," Rodwittiya wrote for the show.

She also writes of his huge body of work, that "traces his linguistic journey from his early influences derived from the Trivandrum School of Art and his engagement with the figurative narrative movement when he came to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda.

She mentions his later "exposure to the New Spirit of Figuration prevalent in London, when he was at the Royal College of Art in the late 80s".

The works, communicating through subdued colours, seem to place the human figure as central, but reveals a larger meaning when seen in tandem with the background -- one that talks of home and belonging.

The exhibition is open for public viewing till October 31.